Crypto markets moved higher ahead of Friday’s U.S. employment report, with Bitcoin leading gains among major digital assets as traders appeared more willing to take on risk.
Bitcoin traded above $86,000 at 9:10 UTC, up 3.4% over the previous 24 hours. Ether, XRP, Solana and BNB also gained, although their advances were smaller than Bitcoin’s.
Further down the market-cap rankings, SKY, AAVE and APT posted gains of 7% to 10%, making them the strongest performers among the top 100 cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin’s dominance is approaching 60%, meaning BTC accounts for an increasing portion of the overall crypto market. Meanwhile, USDT’s market share has fallen to around 6.3%. The shift in these two metrics suggests traders may be moving some capital from stablecoins into crypto assets as risk appetite improves.
The next major market catalyst is the U.S. nonfarm payrolls report, scheduled for 8:30 a.m. ET. FactSet’s consensus calls for 90,000 jobs to have been added in September, compared with 162,000 in August. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 4.1%.
Bitcoin traders are also focused on Treasury yields, particularly real yields, because the employment data could influence expectations for monetary policy. The Oct. 14 consumer price index report will be another key data point for longer-term yield expectations.
Oliver Carding, head of marketing at Tesseract Group, which manages $500 million, said he is monitoring the 10-year real Treasury yield around 3%. He said a sustained move above that level could make a Bitcoin decline toward $80,000-$82,000 more likely than an advance toward $90,000.
Expectations for an October Federal Reserve rate hike have eased significantly. Markets currently assign a 30% probability to a hike, down from 70%, following dovish remarks from New York Fed President John Williams and Fed Vice Chair Philip Jefferson. Reduced expectations for tighter policy can support risk assets such as Bitcoin.
A significant upside surprise in the payrolls data could alter that outlook, however. Strong job growth could lead traders to increase rate-hike expectations and put renewed pressure on Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Derivatives
Bitcoin open interest increased to $22.4 billion from $20.9 billion a day earlier. Funding rates also rose on some exchanges, reaching annualized levels of 9%-10% on Hyperliquid and OKX. Deribit’s three-month annualized basis remained above 6%.
Rising open interest alongside higher funding indicates that leveraged long positions are being added to the market.
Options traders remained tilted toward calls. The 24-hour put/call ratio stood at 88% in favor of calls, compared with 83% previously. The one-week 25-delta skew narrowed to about 1.5% from 4%, while the at-the-money volatility curve remained in contango, ranging from about 27%-28% at the front end to roughly 40% by late 2027.
CoinGlass reported $344 million in liquidations over the past 24 hours, up from $100 million previously. Shorts represented 72% of the total, while longs accounted for 28%. Bitcoin led with $132 million in liquidations, followed by Ether at $70 million and other assets at $26 million.
Binance’s liquidation heatmap identified $87,400 as a key level to monitor if Bitcoin continues moving higher.
Altcoin Performance
Quant dropped about 15% over 24 hours to around $250 after a highly volatile week. The token had previously gained more than threefold during a multiday rally before profit-taking triggered a pullback.
LayerZero and Aave were among the strongest large-cap gainers, rising approximately 11% and 9%, respectively. ZRO traded near $1.91, while AAVE reached around $182 amid interest surrounding proposed protocol upgrades and fee-switch governance discussions.
Ethena and NEAR reversed some of their earlier gains, falling roughly 9% and 8.6%, respectively. ENA traded near $0.25 after reaching multweek highs, while NEAR slipped below $5.
Dogwifhat gained 6.2% to about $0.26, while Pump.fun advanced nearly 4%, reflecting renewed speculative activity in parts of the memecoin market.
Stacks fell about 5% to $0.38, while Midnight declined roughly 5.6% to $0.04. Both tokens pulled back after sharp multiday rallies, with NIGHT having gained more than 20% earlier in the week.
